Select Committee reports back on Offshore Renewable Energy Bill

The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Offshore Renewable Energy Bill, recommending it be passed subject to changes. The purpose of the Bill is to establish a legislative regime to govern the construction, operation, and decommissioning of offshore renewable energy developments. The Bill does this by:

• Introducing a two-stage permitting regime for offshore renewable energy developments:
  • A feasibility permit is first obtained, which gives the holder the exclusive ability to apply for a commercial permit, as well as the right to apply for relevant environmental consents (resource or marine) in the permit area.
  • A commercial permit is then obtained to give effect to a resource or marine consent to undertake offshore renewable energy generation activities in the marine environment. This ensures projects meet the required standard and risks are managed and allows for imposing key obligations for the operational life of the development.
• Creating an ability to declare safety zones of up to 500 metres around offshore generation infrastructure and substations to prohibit or restrict activity.
• Placing obligations on permit holders and owners of related transmission infrastructure to decommission infrastructure. It also creates obligations to put in place and maintain an acceptable financial security arrangement and establishes a form of limited trailing liability for permit transfers.

Key changes recommended by the Committee include changes to:

• reflect the Bill is not intended to capture small-scale generation, being no more than 30MW, and either not for commercial gain or for facilitating certain uses, including research;
• strengthen the requirement for the Minister to be satisfied that no other feasibility permit or commercial permit is current in a proposed permit area before granting a feasibility permit;
• require applicants for commercial permits to consult Transpower and the Electricity Authority before making a permit application;
• require the Minister to give public notice when an application has been granted or rejected (although no requirement to give reasons);
• clarify how the Minister would determine competing applications;
• strengthen the 'use-it-or-lose-it' permit provisions, provide more certainty about how they work in practice, and ensure that permit holders use their permits;
• remove the requirement that permits not exceed 80 years in total, and insert a requirement that each extension to a permit not exceed 40 years;
• require the Minister to consult relevant iwi authorities, hapū, or Treaty settlement entities where the Minister has reasonable cause to believe that a decision to vary the terms of the permit is likely to significantly affect those parties;
• provide more certainty about when a permit could be revoked;
• remove the ability to revoke a permit if the holder 'is no longer suitable to hold the permit for any other reason';
• who must be consulted when establishing a safety zone; and
• strengthen and clarify the obligations regarding decommissioning of infrastructure constructed in relation to activities under a permit.

The Committee's full report can be found here. Next step is for Parliament to debate the Bill at the second reading. The Government has stated that it expects the regime will be in place by mid this year and a first round of feasibility permits will be open for applications later this year.